The kids spent weeks rehearsing for their school’s performance of Seussical Jr. and Alyssa had to juggle them with preparations for her State gymnastics meet. Both events were on the same day but the scheduling ended up working perfectly—even if it was crazy—for us.
The first show was performed on Friday night. It really was delightful. Though I’ve rolled my eyes more than once about the way the directors treat this show likes it needs to be Broadway-worthy, the vocal performances, choreography, costumes and make-up truly were amazing. I don’t think it’s your average elementary school show. Caleb was fabulous in his cameo role as the Grinch and Alyssa was an adorable Who.
We got home late from Friday’s opener, hurried Alyssa off to bed and pawned Caleb off to a friend for a sleepover. Caleb had a baseball game on Saturday and furthermore could not possibly bear the thought of having to endure another gymnastics meet. But this wasn’t just any ol’ meet. It was Alyssa’s State gymnastics meet. 
Alyssa at Sectionals - She placed 6th
Because of Sunday conflicts, Alyssa’s never been able to compete in a State meet. After her performance at the sectional meet, she earned a gold ranking. (Each of the gymnasts who qualified for State were divided into gold, silver or bronze divisions.) We were, of course, proud of her, but were disappointed because we knew that the gold gymnasts were going to compete on Sunday. We were able to ask the committee for an exception and they allowed Lys to join a bronze session with two of her teammates. But, we were told, none of her scores could count. She would not be allowed to place. She understood the situation and was just happy to compete. So, we arrived bright and early (7:45 am—to a location an hour away from home) Saturday morning.
This state meet session consisted of 80 little girls, each between the ages of 6 and 8. In other words, the gymnasium was swarming with miniature leotard-clad bodies doing pretty impressive routines. Alyssa had her best meet to date scoring a 9.15 on floor, a 9.375 on vault, a 9.125 on bars and a 9.15 on beam. Her all-around was a 36.8!
When it came time for awards, we were thrilled to see Alyssa presented with the Judges Choice award for floor. We thought it was so nice of them to acknowledge her since we knew she couldn’t place among the all-around awards. Imagine our surprise when, minutes later, we heard her name announced as the State champion! She ran to the podium and stood atop the number one spot while a medal was placed around her neck.
We started frantically motioning to her to take it off. We knew it wasn’t fair for a gold level gymnast to take the first place award at the bronze level session. In an instant, the woman at the score table went sprinting to the podium to set the scoring straight. They had to remove all the gymnasts from the podium and take the medal from Alyssa’s neck. The crowd buzzed with confusion while Alyssa took a seat and the awards were redistributed. She handled it all like the champ that she is. Whether her division or not, she had outscored 79 other little girls her age so we’ve been calling her State Champion, even if it was only for a minute. That fleeting moment on the podium still must have felt good for her.
We loaded our champ into the car and raced her to the school for the matinee performance of Seussical. She managed a quick change of costume and had make-up applied with a few minutes to spare. Caleb had been brought to the school by our friends so I said a quick “hello” before the performance. He’d had a great morning playing baseball and being with friends.
After another fabulous show, we had two hours to spend at home before returning for the final performance. Caleb and his buddies wanted to play baseball during the break. I wish I’d gotten a picture because I thought it was so funny to see the four of them holding bats and gloves at the park with their face make-up on. Each of them was a different character with very different make-up designs and it just looked so humorous.
By the time we made it through the last show, we were exhausted. Grandma wanted to take the kids out to celebrate all their moments in the spotlight but what should’ve been a fun outing turned into tears and fits and angry parents around a restaurant table.
Exhaustion aside, it’s always pretty exciting to stand in the limelight.
